How are you feeling about your retirement these days? According to Chuck Jaffe’s article in MarketWatch most people’s answer to that question is not so good. According to Jaffe, Americans are losing confidence in the market’s ability to support their retirement (with good reason), and the most common reaction to this lack of confidence is to reassess their future and plan to put off retirement a few years. But what if your retirement date isn’t a matter of choice?
The tagline of Jaffe’s article is “Raise Retirement Satisfaction By Lowering Your Standards”, but what Jaffe really seems to be saying is not so much to “lower your standards” , but rather to be educated about the market and be realistic about your standards. “Getting a better handle on your future — so that you can either say today you’ll be able to live comfortably in retirement or make plans that raise your comfort level in time — requires sound knowledge of where you actually stand today. That requires taking inventory of your assets, expenses and plans.” Regretfully, planning for the cost of Long Term Care is often given little consideration when couple’s plan their future. The good news, however, is that there are options, but many clients may be unaware of them. See our articles, The “Spousal Protection Plan“, and “Developing A Long Term Care Plan For An Incapacitated Spouse”.
This is sound advice not just in retirement planning, but in any kind of planning—including estate planning and long term care planning. There is a lot of conflicting information out there, and a lot of assumptions; our firm can help you navigate the terrain and make an informed choice about your future. More importantly, we can help you create a Long Term Care Plan to coordinate with your estate plan, in order to help you conserve the value of your estate for your spouse or children.